How to Ensure Your IT Product Will Work?
Coming up with an idea of a brand new product or service is extremely inspiring! However, it’s also very easy to get too far ahead and dream of big sales and good reviews even before you finish implementing the project. Below is a checklist that will help you fill the gaps and ensure that your product has real value and will work for the end-user.
1. Define Target Audience Clearly
Understanding your target audience is crucial to defining specific demographic groups your startup needs to communicate with. You should also understand that knowing your TA will bring:
- a clear direction in marketing;
- assistance in reaching consistent marketing messaging;
- reveal what product development solutions have to be used.
2. Find Ways to Reach Out to Your Audience
At this stage, you have to literally get into the minds of your TA to understand how they interpret your ad messages and what information sources work out best for delivering your ads. Capture the most effective ways and invest in them first.
3. Design the Buying Journey
The buying journey is the foundation of sales. Your aim here is to:
- Figure out buyer’s pain points:
- Forecast expectations from your product;
- Learn buying triggers;
- Find out where your TA gets information and why they trusts it.
4. Outline the Problems You Have to Solve
Delivering a software product to your TA is always a challenge, but you have to specify what problems have to be solved. Always keep asking who and why will use your product and close-test the product in buyer personas to understand your challenge better and move towards the right result.
5. Secure Online Product Identity
Cybersquatting is a common problem today, so you should protect your domain name, trademark, and social media accounts. Otherwise, the chances are pretty high that the cybersquatters take advantage and charge a high price for your domain.
6. Validate the Product
Try to make pitch sales before the product is ready to see if there’s a real demand. Most probably, you won’t be able to sell a ready-made product if no one is ready to pay based on its marketing.
7. Make Sure You’re Different
This step involves researching the competition and looking for ways to be different from similar projects. Outline what makes your brand different and use it to your advantage in marketing.
8. Create a Demo
Sharing a demo with a broader audience is necessary to gather as much feedback as possible before the actual launch. This can reveal more issues that need to be solved, and you want them to be solved before you sell.
9. Don’t Stop Testing
The rule of thumb is to keep testing your product before it finally breaks somewhere. IT products are complicated, so there’s no such thing as overtesting even after the launch.
10. Plan Versions Ahead
You can’t keep polishing the product forever, so it’s necessary to bring important updates after the start of sales. Schedule updates in order to encourage your team to look for issues within time frames.
Time to Start!
Now that you have a clear concept of your IT product, you can ensure that it works for your target audience before the launch. Don’t underestimate the power of planning and testing and you will succeed!
